BuddyPress.org

This is something I have been struggling with for a couple of years now. I am just getting on the W/BP platform having ditched our old solution…

Your concept is perfect for what we are trying to do.

We are a philanthropic social network and we have four basic “types” of groups.
1.) Groups centered around Causes – Global Issues such as Clean Drinking Water, Child Trafficking, Climate Change, etc.
2.) Groups centered around Occupations – Firefighters, Medical Personnel, Airline Personnel, etc. They all come together to help a project or region by volunteering their services.
3.) Groups centered around a Project – Rebuilding a School in Nepal, Providing Shoes for Kids in Nicaragua, Creating a Sewing School in Indonesia, etc.
4.) Groups centered around a Geographic Location – San Francisco, Nepal, Buenos Aires, etc.

Each “group type”, although similar in nature has different nuances on how they work and what needs they have. For example, the Project group type usually has some project management needs along with specific deadlines. We usually have trips that go to these projects and those trips typically cater to one of our Occupation Groups and falls under a global Cause that we support. Different Geographic Location groups might be interested in the trip too if it is coming to their area or if we have special airline discounts from a specific city like New York.

What I like about your approach is that you are thinking of letting users create their own groups under specific categories or “group types”.

We could benefit from drop-down lists that require the user to choose a “group type” when they create a group and then follow up with further selections (that we create, or fill-in-the-blank) based on their selection.

For example, if they choose:
Cause – What is the focus? Clean Water (from list), What country? Indonesia (from list)
Occupation – What is the Occupation? Firefighters* (from list), What country? United States (from list), What City/Town? Dallas(fill-in-blank if international) *this group could be a sub-group of our global Firefighter group
Project – What is the project? Drill Clean Water Well, What country? Indonesia (from list), What City/Town? Kalimantan (fill-in-blank), How many people does it impact? 250, What occupations can participate? Construction, Medical, General Volunteers

Maybe you’re not going in this direction, but I wanted to share a real-world example of what we are doing. Maybe it will give you some ideas.

Thanks for your work!!!